Office of Information Technology and Learning Experience

New About Page for the Learning Commons

We’re excited to announce the new About page for the Learning Commons, which can be found at: https://libguides.hacc.edu/learningcommons/about. This new section helps us frame the various functions of the Learning Commons and highlight the power of connecting students to the resources they need.

In the one-college model, the Learning Commons now includes Testing, Tutoring, User Support, and the Library. We worked collaboratively through a drafting and revision process to settle on the current About description as well as mission and vision statements which encompass all of the areas now within the Learning Commons. Central to our mission is the act of connecting: connecting students to students, students to faculty, students to resources, and students to services.

Our vision for student success and the Learning Commons is simple: connecting every student to the resources they need, when they need it.

Client Services Team Activities

The Client Services Team has been extremely busy during the COVID closure to ensure that students and staff have the technology they need to be successful. In addition to responding to support calls and work orders, they have:

• Moved over 3500 PC’s from the old SCCM site to the new one

• Moved 118 servers from the old SCCM site to the new one

• Updated 241 student labs (current build of Windows 10) collegewide

• Setup 578 laptops and 76 desktops to access Always on Virtual Private Network (AOVPN)

• Produced a number of reports to help with asset management

• Continued updating out of date laptops to access AOVPN

• Bought out or initiated MAC leases

• Conducted product research for an asset management platform

• Secured the Switch Gear building for solely IT use for equipment storage and deployment staging

• Maintained security and application patching on PC, server, and MAC environments

• Collapsed Hall Tech labs and placed them into storage in preparation for the Midtown 2 moves

• Collapsed Midtown 2 labs and moved them to Switch Gear until renovations are completed in Hall Tech

SmartEvals Student Course Evaluations

In the Fall of 2020, HACC implemented the SmartEvals student course evaluation software. Last year, a review committee of faculty and staff researched and selected SmartEvals to replace the existing student course evaluation processes. This platform provides a uniform interface for all student evaluations of faculty. All credit students can complete evaluations using this product, and all credit faculty can access their evaluation results through the instructor portal. Deans and Department Chairs also use SmartEvals to review results for faculty they supervise.

HACC’s previous course evaluation process utilized scannable paper forms for face-to-face courses and web-based surveys for online and selected health careers courses. The response rates for the paper-based evaluations were in excess of 60%, however, it was a very labor-intensive process. Each semester, approximately 28,000 paper forms were printed and distributed to faculty for administration in the classroom. It then took 35 - 40 hours to manually run these forms through the form reader. Evaluation results were printed and distributed via campus mail to the faculty. Adopting SmartEvals has eliminated the need for printing and disseminating approximately 35,000 sheets of paper each semester.

While web-based surveys are more efficient in terms of labor hours, the response rates for our online courses rarely exceeded 20%. These low response rates for online evaluations were a barrier to adopting this format for all classes. Our previous online process was limited in ways to enhance response rates (e.g. email links, reminders, and mobile-friendly interface). Since faculty tenure and promotion decisions are impacted by student evaluations, we hesitated to move all course evaluations to a web-based delivery. Because SmartEvals allows students to complete web-based evaluations in the classroom on mobile devices and has built in mechanisms to reach and remind individual students, the response rates will be similar to those for the paper-based evaluations.

The use of online evaluations for all classes will allow for more robust data collection than our old processes. Scannable forms are efficient for collecting quantitative data, but the college’s scanner cannot interpret qualitative feedback. The only method we had for summarizing student comments on paper forms required manual data entry. Using SmartEvals, students enter their responses directly into the evaluation system, providing instructors more detailed and actionable feedback on their instruction. Additionally, SmartEvals positioned the college to conduct student course evaluations for courses offered remotely during the pandemic.

SmartEvals will be beneficial to the Next Generation Task Force’s Minimester initiative for compressed semester class scheduling. In HACC’s old process, evaluation results were only generated at the end of each semester, regardless of the part of term in which the course was offered. SmartEvals can manage multiple evaluation periods each semester. Evaluations can be deployed and results generated for any subset of a given term. This will support HACC’s goal to increase the number of programs offered in a compressed semester format, by enabling instructors to incorporate feedback from first seven-week courses into their second seven-week courses.

Our first semester using SmartEvals yielded a 52% response rate across all courses. The response rates for the Nursing and Health Careers departments exceeded 60%. As students and faculty become more comfortable with the system, those rates will increase.

This initiative was generously funded by the HACC Foundation. Questions about the SmartEvals software or process may be directed to Kim Kelsey, director of institutional reporting. Questions about the course evaluation process may be directed to Kathy Doherty, associate provost, academic affairs.